Thunder pull away to trounce Sixers

OKLAHOMA CITY — Having pushed themselves into a corner on this roadtrip, the 76ers needed a pair of wins against division-leading teams to break even.

It wasn’t meant to happen. Not with the way Oklahoma City defends its home floor. And not with the way the Sixers allowed the Thunder to dominate in the third quarter.

The Sixers, who kept things nearly level through two quarters Friday night, fell apart after halftime as Oklahoma City thumped the visitors, 109-85, at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“They’ll hit you with a surge and that’s what they did,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said.

The Thunder, who got 27 points from Russell Westbrook and 26 from Kevin Durant, pulled away with a ridiculous stretch to start the third quarter, during which they went 7-for-7 from the floor in the first seven minutes. They mounted a double-digit lead and never looked back.

When the Sixers (15-19) called a timeout with 7:33 to go in the game, the Thunder had made 17 of 25 second-half shots. Mercifully, the Sixers’ season-long eight-game roadtrip closes tonight at San Antonio, and the best they can hope for is a 3-5 record.

The Sixers’ Nick Young kept his assessment of the Thunder’s late surge to six words.

“KD and Russell,” he said. “They got going.”

Jrue Holiday tried to stop the bleeding, knocking down a pair of shots and handing out three assists in the same span, but the Sixers weren’t clicking collectively. It was a pretty tall task for Holiday, considering he was suffering from a minor right groin strain that slowed him at the start.

Holiday gave the Sixers 15 points and nine assists, while Young, the only Sixer to step to the free-throw line, had 21 points in 28 minutes off the bench.

Perhaps that alone was the reason the Sixers struggled so mightily. The NBA’s most-active free-throw-shooting team, the Thunder were 21-for-27 at the stripe Friday while the Sixers, or more appropriately Young, went 6-for-8.

“Teams are physically getting into us, knocking us around. You know how many free throws we shot tonight?” Collins said.

He was asked whether he informed his team of the foul shot disparity.

“What am I going to say? I’ve been saying it for three years,” Collins said. “We’ve got to be stronger, take that ball to the basket and make them foul us. For one guy to shoot a free throw tonight — and I’m not saying that has anything to do with the whistle, so I don’t want that to be miscalculated at all.”

Collins didn’t even sound as though he was entirely disappointed with the work of the game’s officials. He made it clear he was upset with the Sixers’ proclivity for shooting jump shots rather than driving the lane.

“Sometimes we’re getting fouled and sometimes you settle for jump shots,” Young said. “Just one of those games. We’ve got some very talented offensive players here and any given night, it could be an attack night or it could be a night where they feel comfortable going up with their jump shots.”

Whatever was in the Thunder’s halftime water cooler, they chugged plenty of it.

Oklahoma City made its first seven attempts from the floor. Some of them seemed improbable, like Thabo Sefolosha and Durant knocking down 23-footers within 29 seconds of one another, and others seemed right on cue, with Westbrook driving for fastbreak buckets.

The Thunder closed out the third quarter having shot 12-for-17 from the field, an unreal total even for the league’s highest-scoring team. And with that OKC took a 78-66 lead into the fourth quarter.

If not for Holiday’s solid third quarter, though, the Sixers’ deficit would’ve been far less manageable. Holiday didn’t miss on any of his four shot attempts and dished out four assists along the way to keep the Sixers’ deficit from getting out of hand.

Well, temporarily at least.OKC’s Kevin Martin knocked down a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter, and it was lights-out from there. The flood gates had been opened and the Sixers couldn’t keep the Thunder from pouring in the points.